Thank you for this beautiful piece.

I worked with honeybees at UC Davis for a summer many years ago. I got stung three times, far enough apart that I never got comfortable with it.

I remember how fascinated I was with the drones, who held to such a high standard of absolute and utter laziness. I would bring my friends by the hive just to show them, "Look! They don't do anything! They just lay around and get fed, waiting to make their move on a queen!" (ahh, the low budget dreams of young male undergrads!)

In your two short pages those memories re-awoke in me. I should look into starting a hive of my own.

Hoorah for the bees! Who have fled their exploitative masters, even at the risk of dying. It is the bee revolution you've all been waiting for. You reap what you sew. Maybe you shouldn't have taken ALL of their honey every year? Repent! (Or better even. Learn from your mistakes!).

What did you ever do for the bees, eh?

Bee stings are good for you. And good for us if you are allergic. ha ha ha.

--Bee Advocate

The buzzing of bees and the purring of cats - two relaxing sounds I'd hate to live without.

Regarding honey's natural medicinal purposes, it's the best allergy prevention item one can ever invest in. Ingesting local pollens via swallowing local honey is responsible for my allergies going from raging to nearly nonexistent.

And not only is a spoonful of local honey each day a wonderful seasonal allergy rememdy, it's a lot sweeter to take ( and costs a lot less) than Allegra, Claritin or Zyrtec.

Wonderful essay, and a pleasure to read. I hope the missing bees are only a small anomaly, and not a portent of the future of our planet's delicate ecosystem.

your post made me smile. I am not a relaxed person, NOT a spiritual person. I'm very impatient. Am not particularly into feelings. Can't stand religious services of any kind. Let's just say that I'm not very zen like.

However, when I'm in my garden, things are different. There are few things in life - sitting with one of my cats, having coffee by myself on the deck in the quiet of the early morning, and listening to the bees buzzing in my garden - that make me relax. The buzzing of the bees gives me a feeling of contentment that is hard to describe.

I have a complete and utter phobia of bees. I'm not allergic to them - in fact, I just received my first sting last summer and it wasn't that bad. They just terrify me. Just the ZZzzzZZZZzzz sound, or something like it, is enough to make me flinch and tense all of my muscles. I'm getting chills just thinking about it. That's the definition of a phobia, I suppose - irrational terror.

But reading this article, I could feel the author's love of her bees. She described the hive in a way I'd never imagined. I'd heard about the disappearance of hives, and was horrified in a general "our world is doomed" kind of way, but I hadn't thought about the very personal toll that it must take on their keepers. I'm so sorry for her loss.

Every so often, I come home to find bees in my house. I'm not sure how they get in, but they can't find their way out again, so I find them dead or dying on the windowsills. I'm told that it's because we have a canal nearby, so there's probably a hive there which swarms occasionally, and the bees are motivated to crawl through every little crack and crevice in search of a new home. I haven't seen any this spring. Now, despite the fear, I almost hope I do - it would mean that the wild hive on the canal is still going strong.

This is one of those articles that made the hair stand up on my arms and sent chills down my spine. While beautifully written and sentimental, I could not help but feel a pall of dread descend upon me. It is in the little things and details where the big problems first reveal themselves. The degradation of our environment and food supply has been an oft discussed topic for years, but the simple honesty of a personal observation contained in this article struck an emotional chord that has left me quite unsettled. The death of so many bees is a evidence of our failed stewardship of the earth and all of its creatures. I do hope research can find the exact cause and counteract it, but something needs to be done more immediately it would seem and I hope the beekeepers continue their vigilance.

This was a nice article. I don't like most articles in Salon these days. They seem divisive, judgemental, and deliberately obnoxious. But this was an interesting article about a current topic that was an enjoyable read.

As an aside, I spent the weekend at a cabin in the western most hills of Central California where a rosemary plant was in bloom. I was glad to see it was buzzing with busy bees.

sounded this alarm almost 20 years ago. I live inside the Beltway in Northern Virginia, and I've been gardening here for 19 years. Three years into my home garden, I noticed a precipitous drop in the number of bees, lady bugs, and beneficial predators in my garden. I took several steps that have lead to a recovery in their number.

I use no chemicals - not even so-called beneficials. (They always kill something in the food chain.) I am primarily a vegetable gardener, but I plant a variety of herbs (the bees LOVE the herb blossoms) and early blooming plants to give the beneficials something to feed on. I have three enormous bee balm plants that, in season, are always covered with bees. (And no, I have never been stung by a bee. A well-fed lion is a happy lion...)I work hard to keep a healthy garden: Good soil and a variety of plants are key.

It isn't just sad that the bees are going missing: It is a threat to our food supply. Those of you who don't garden can help by not using chemical lawn services, and by purchasing organic honey directly from beekeepers at your local farmer's market. And plant something for the beneficials to eat.